Moroccan international Amine Adli has opened up about the death of his mother and how the national team helped him cope during a deeply personal tragedy.
The Bayer Leverkusen winger, who has not been called up for Morocco’s friendlies against Benin and Tunisia, said he had just returned from a holiday with his mother in Dubai when disaster struck.
“I had joined the national team for AFCON preparations, then got a call from my sister—my mother was ill. I flew to France immediately. Four days later, she passed away. It was sudden and hard to accept,” he told Instant Foot.
Adli said the Moroccan Football Federation arranged for her body to be flown to Meknes for burial. “Fouzi Lekjaa made that happen. A private jet, everything arranged. I haven’t forgotten it.”
He also mentioned the reaction from head coach Walid Regragui. “He told me, ‘If you want to come to AFCON, come. If not, no pressure.’ That sort of response mattered. It wasn’t a football conversation.”
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Adli said it was this kind of treatment that made him feel part of something larger than sport. “It felt like being around people who cared about more than matches and goals.”
His absence from the current squad is not linked to any fallout. Regragui said during the press conference to announce the squad list that the door remains open and Adli should continue working hard to earn a call-up to the national team again.
